Time for another day of Axl joining Mike in rebuilding his home, Mike and Michele in bed and Michele hating the chaos, dirt and dust and Axl bringing in the ceiling. Over that bed. That’s not made things better.

With the house officially unliveable, Mike insists they stay at Michele’s flat, temporarily, especially since it’s 2 bedroom with one person in it. Michele finally has to tell him that her tenant is her mother – and she’s dreading moving back with her.

To the flat, to meet Michele’s mother, Karen who is… pretty pleasant. A bit full on, over enthusiastic and she calls Michele “snappy”. Which is an awesome nickname which should be used forever and ever. Of course, Karen is also a goddess (and, strike against her, she liked Colin – Loki – but, then she seems to like everyone) – Lofn (oooh the gentle matchmaker); she loves parties and Mike’s the god of games – sounds awesome. Michele looks like she regrets Sjofn’s powers don’t let her sink into the floor.

At Anders’s office, someone has left Ander’s a briefcase full of money (which he had Dawn open because he’s a coward). A briefcase full of money with a note to meet the anonymous benefactor if they want more. Dawn is very sensibly suspicious, Anders is very typically greedy and foolish. Always listen to Dawn, Dawn is always right

The meeting turns out to be with Colin. Loki. Turn around and walk away now Anders. He says he needs Anders – oh gods walk away! Colin wants to be mayor! Because it’ll be fun! And, of course, he wants Anders with the powers of Bragi to make it happen (and his boyish good looks won’t hurt). Anders objects on the grounds of Colin blowing up his brother’s house and Colin responds with some objectification of his assistant, a round of homophobia, mocking Anders for being on Mike’s leash and a briefcase with a nun puppet in it. Yes he’s as confused as I am

From nun puppets to a church full of congregants singing a hymn – with Olaf and Stacey among them. After the service Stacey laments that they’re nice people, because they’re going to have to kill them – or smite them as Olaf puts it. They go from the church to Mike to explain things – Stacey tracked them down, they’re the god hunters like the murderous Natalie. And they plan to try again.

Gathering many of the gods together, Stacey tells them how she tracked Natalie back to her source showing some pretty decent deduction skills, leading her to Natalie’s tearful husband Bevan, in New Zealand. (Ingrid continues to be nice and fluffy, Stacey much harder on the god murderers) they followed him to his church and, examining the church, found a cell within the church that are god hunters – probably 6 of them. (Also Olaf is just awful at undercover). Stacey found they where planning to meet that day at 2 – so they’d all be in the same place for the gods to, as Olaf puts it, smite them.

Stacey suggests just giving the information to Colin and letting him burn the place down (don’t rely on Loki!) and Ingrid objects to murder, Mike agrees – and Axl invokes Odin-ness (causing much sarcasm from Mike) saying that bringing in Colin is always a bad idea (behold wisdom), and that they go round and get the jump on the hunters. Mike agrees – but not taking Axl, because Odin dying kills them all. Also, no he’s not in charge yet. They go and leave a bitter, sad Axl behind.

Matheus had put a lot of effort to escaping his past and
leading a nice boring life free from any kind of drama – or any real human
contact. Until he was recruited to steal something from his workplace

And by recruited, we mean threatened with terrible,
horrible torture until he complied. If there was any doubt as to the sincerity
of the threats, his contact is a vampire. And to ensure his silence, he makes
Matheus one too

Learning to become a vampire isn’t easy – less so when
you have considerable resentment towards the vampire who murdered you. There’s
a lot to learn, a lot of hoops to jump through, city politics to navigate,
hunters to dodge – and some surprising revelations to learn about himself as well.

But even that gets complicated when his long hidden past
returns in force.

A book about vampires! Time for me to get my big big pile
of clichés and tropes and scenarios I’ve seen again and again and again…

And throw them out the window! Because they don’t apply
here! Yes, I’m quite gleeful about this. A vampire story without so many things
that are now staple – and impossibly gorgeous vampire, lots of angst for no
good reason, a whole lot of sanitising what it actually means to be undead and
a monster with a heavy side order of super powers and romance.

Not this book. First of all becoming a vampire is
difficult and really messy – as Quinn notes, he really should have brought a
mop.

The vampires drink blood and kill people. This isn’t a
choice and there isn’t an alternative – for a vampire to go on living they kill
people. This is a moral quandary and it is treated as such –something to think
about and feel guilty about and try to find exceptions and minimise the damage
and have considerable resentment from Matheus towards Quin for both murdering
him and dooming him to murder other people. It’s not angst in a “oh what a
terrible person I am” but it’s extreme discomfort, anger and fear over what
Matheus has become and what he has to do rather than the very tired angsty
monologues over nipping a vein. It has a depth, a nuance and a strength to it
that is sorely missing in so many stories of monsters that regret who they are.

In fact life and death continue to be a major theme in
the books. There are a lot of deaths and they’re not even slightly sanitised.
It’s graphic, it’s often brutal and it’s not pretty nor is it meant to be.
People die – and no-one’s expendable and no-one’s disposable and even people
hunting you or working for the evil corporation are people with families. At
the same time, while everyone who dies is human, Matheus is not a saint – and
he’s certainly not going to weep for his torturer – and Quin is far too jaded
by his centuries to feel anything.

Today’s theme seems to be business and eternal to-do list
and Delores giving George a massively repetitive task which she thinks is
soothing and zen. Delores can find a bright happy side to everything ensuring
that, if I knew her, I would have to kill her. George seems to agree with me on
that score. Increasing the chances of murder, George also works enough hours to
qualify for their health and pension benefits – which means lots of deductions
so she takes home less money

Ok, this seems like a very odd system

This means she only orders toast at the Waffle House and
is most unhappy. Unlike Roxy who comes in with balloons and good will for all.
She must be ill. She even wants to buy George breakfast she feels so blissed
out; Rube gives her 2 days off. See, I’m not the only one who thinks she’s ill.
Daisy complains, of course, because she’s Daisy and someone needs to axe murder
her. She also succeeds in ruining Roxy’s mood.

Daisy goes to reap a snobby racist woman surrounded by
her rich fellows who gets set on fire by the flambé, not helped by her friends
trying to put her out by throwing alcohol on her. Unfortunately for Daisy, rich
snobby dead lady isn’t co-operative (but she has manners enough to get Daisy to
tip the bus boy who tried to put her out).

So what does Daisy do? She takes the ghost to see Georgia
at work – even calling her real name rather than the one she uses (Millie) at
work. She has a plan to use her very rich ghost to get money –oodles of it.
George is tempted but it’s just wrong to use dead people to make money. Very moral
but it has to be said that both Mason and Betty regularly stole from dead
people. This moral quandary lasts a few minutes before George decides to fake a
dead relative to get time off. And Delores is such a happy dappy person she
even helps George abuse the rules to get more time off.

They take their scheme – and ghost – to see Mason and she
looks around a very nice house and asks if it’s a slum (she thought George’s
work place was a sweat shop). She wants to communicate with her son. And for
Daisy’s plan to work she needs Mason out of his house – which requires negotiation
based on Mason’s creepy attraction to her resolving at 15% of the money and him
getting to see her breasts. Mason, invest in porn and get your creepiness off
Daisy, you can see breasts there and easily negotiate and extra 5%

Orson Scott Card, as you probably know, is a nasty human being and one of the worst bigots you could ever hope to meet. He has also written a series of books that are pretty popular and many a person, including those who think of themselves as straight “allies” have twisted themselves into knots about that.

And now one of his books has been turned into a film, Ender’s Game. I’m kind of disgusted that Lionsgate would go near this man - so I fully support Geeks Out’s petition urging people toskip this film.

And cue a whole lot of people defending, dismissing, downplaying and otherwise squirming around Orson Scott Card’s bigotry so they can justify to themselves why they should see the film coupled with a fair bit of aggression aimed at GBLT people who are calling for a boycott. Let’s cut through some of this homophobic apologism

Orson Scott Card’s precious opinions

First of all, while this is what is most often reported, Orson Scott Card is not just a man who disagrees with marriage equality (though why gay people shouldn’t boycott someone who fights against any of our rights bemuses me); he became a director of the hate group, NOM. That goes beyond even speaking against our humanity or campaigning against our rights or putting his money into the fight against gay people – he became the director of a hate group.

Stop downplaying the extent of this man’s hatred and how much time, effort and money he has put into bigotry. If you need to deflect the truth to salve your conscience then that should tell you something.

While Lionsgate have tried to do their best to downplay how much Orson Scott Card is involved and Gavin Hood, Harrison Ford and Robert Orci have definitely done their very best to dismiss concerns (which makes me think I should be boycotting more than Card if these three men are so desperate to downplay and ignore homophobia). Despite this dismissal, Card has most certainly earned a big wadge of cash from them turning his book into a film – not only that, but he is listed as a co-producer of the film. If this film is successful, he will get more money.

When Gavin Hood, Harrison Ford and Robert Orci say Ender’s Game has nothing to do with Orson Scott Card, they are lying to cover the homophobia. They are putting money into the pockets of a rabid bigot who has a track record of using his money to fight against gay people’s rights. The audiences of this film will be putting money in Orson Scott Card’s pocket.

And not only this film. If this film is a success it’s quite likely that more of Orson Scott Card’s books will be turned into films, raising his profile and putting yet more money into his pocket.

Owen and Phillip are having a guy’s night out in the club
– but Owen’s having a hard time letting go and enjoying himself with his head
fully absorbed in how badly he messed up with Gin – which only gets more depressing
when Gin and Bria come to the club for their own night out

With so much regret to mull over, it’s almost a relief
when Owen hears a couple of assassins planning to take Gin down. The least he
can do is try to keep her night undisturbed.

In some ways, this is exactly the kind of short story I
want in a series that is this established – something to give me an insight
above and beyond the standard plot, taking someone else’s point of view other
than the protagonist I’ve seen over and over again, getting their perspective
on things that maybe will show the events in a different way from what I’m used
it. After all, the series is 8 books long, not including short stories, it’s
good to hear from the characters who follow Gin around, see what their version
of events are especially since Gin has had personal conflicts with just about
everyone.

So opening the book and seeing Owen’s point of view was a
big plus to me. Especially after everything that happened in the last few books
with his
ex-girlfriend and then the
action at the Rotunda and trying to make up with Gin.

And because of that, I was very very very tolerant of recapping. Even if there
was a lot of recapping – and oh boy is there a lot of recapping – because if
you’re going to get someone else’s point of view on past events then you need
to look at those events again.

But… Owen doesn’t exactly have an informative or deep
point of view; about the only new insight I gained was his regret of all the
years he lost with Phillip, the friend he cast aside because of Salina’s lie.
Other than that?

Woe! I let Gin down! Wooooe!

Woe! Bria hates me because I let Gin down! I deserve it. Wooooe!

Woe! I am such a bad person!

Woe! Gin hates me – and she totally should!

Woe! A woman flirted with me and Gin saw and now she’s hurt!
Woe, I’m a terrible person!

Woe! I treated Phillip like shit for years because I’m a
terribad person! Woe!

Julia passes the news across the radio that the military
will let them visit their loved ones at a designated time at the edge of the
Dome (apparently the general public showing up anywhere around the Dome is
still forbidden).

At the shelter, it looks like Jim left Angie in all
night. She asks him to let her go but he’s having trouble absorbing that his
son captured her and has been keeping her there. He decides to leave her down
there so he can “think about things”. Uh-huh, and there he goes down the moral
precipice of no return. And when he leaves the house he runs into the Rev.
Coggins, like some kind of karmic punishment who tells Jim god has spoken to
him and said “Moab”.

God could do to be a bit more talkative and informative.
I reckon Coggins was doing a crossword and got to “place in Jordan, beginning
with M” and the dome got frustrated.

Anyway, Moab, Coggins explains waving his bible, was a wicked, naughty place
just like Chester’s Mill! Chester’s Mill’s in the middle of nowhere Maine –
after 4 episodes I think it’s far far too dull to be all that wicked and
naughty. Jim isn’t impressed and Coggins continues to get the word of god in
his hearing aid.

Jim goes back inside and starts agonising over a picture
of young Junior, before his kidnapping days, when Junior himself comes in, in
police uniform to tell him about the visiting. Rather than address the
kidnapped Angie in the shelter, Jim instantly thinks about crowd control and
how Linda can’t handle it – and in a complete migraine moment, authorises
Junior to recruit more officers. He’s so desperate to undercut Linda and seize
power that he’s going to increase the power of his kidnapper son? Whatever
guilt he feels about it is dealt with by yelling at Junior for not rushing off
to increase his power base faster.

At the Dome people start arriving and Linda recruits Barbie to help crowd
control (2 recruits – 1 obsessive stalker who has kidnapped and imprisoned
Angie, the other a bookie’s enforcer who murdered your local doctor. Whatever
your talents Linda, you are an AWFUL judge of character). She warns everyone to
stay back since it blows up batteries – then she touches the dome and even
kisses her husband through the Dome.

After the massacre at the prison, the group slowly comes back together and settles at Hershel’s farm. Everyone starts to deal with the magnitude of their loss and starts to plan where to go from here.

Any thought of staying is bashed by the arrival of Abraham, Eugene and Rosita. Abraham comes with dire warnings of Herds - huge mobs of zombies that they could never defend the farm against (which presents the quandary - anything defensible is sought out by other living people, anything the living don’t want can’t be protected from the zombies).

Eugene though, has an offer of salvation. He claims to have the cure for the zombies, information that could finally put the world back together - but they have to get to Washington DC to use it.

One thing Walking Dead is good at is over-all pacing for the whole series. After the extreme action and emotional hits of the last volume, this volume was considerably slower - not slow, but giving the reader chance to catch our breaths and deal with the aftermath, rather than hit us with more action before we’ve had time to process.

The dominant theme this volume is dealing with death. After all, so many people died last volume, all of them violently - and, for that matter, over the series - that everyone is grieving and suffering some trauma. It showcases the different ways the characters are dealing - or not dealing - with death.

Maggie has lost her father, 6 siblings and her neighbours (we also assume her mother, albeit before the apocalypse). Everyone she had any connection to before the zombies rose is now dead; all her relationships now will be formed post-apocalypse. Her reaction to this is to purge the memories of those she lost - she wants to leave the farm which must be saturated with painful memories for her; she wants to move on and even forget she had a family since she had such a large family all of whom have died.

Michonne and Rick have both reacted to grief in a similar fashion - an almost delusional state. They are hallucinating - albeit, they acknowledge the fact, they know they’re hallucinating - but they draw comfort from almost haunting themselves with shreds of their loved ones. One wonderful part of this is, even when they acknowledge they’re mentally ill, neither of them feels ashamed of the fact. Sure, they keep it a secret because they know how they others will react, but they know it brings them comfort and they’re not going to let shame deprive them of the last contact they’ve managed to keep with loved ones they’re not ready to let go.

I try not to DNF books. Part of me always feels like I have been defeated by an abominable foe when I do not finish a book. I become driven to continue, to keep reading no matter what – literature will not defeat me!

Alas, sometimes it happens. But usually I fight the good fight for a long time before putting down the book, and this was no exception

The problem was this book came out swinging. Within the first 10 pages the book launched its first assault on my brain and it didn’t stop. Never did I think a book would lay siege to my tolerance for even the worst hacked together writing so early on. I should probably have put the book down right then and written it off as a book I simply could not read. But I wasn’t one to quit the field of battle without at least trying to fight!

By page 25 it was clear I was losing, my meagre defences were falling, I was putting the book down every other page to gape in shock at the atrocities perpetrated on the page. I had so many notes I think I had written more than the author

One page 50 I was well and truly defeated only momentum and a kind of stunned disbelief kept me going

20 pages later, I admitted defeat, I could not read one more page of this book. Raise the white flag, the writing had killed me.

We open with a group of 8 university students playing a wicked prank on the protagonist. This prank takes 3 chapters of the most painfully long writing imaginable. Every one of the 8 pranksters is described at pointless length. They each discuss the prank, then repeat the discussion, then repeat it again, then again and then yet another time. For some bemusing reason each one decides to tell the other what their phobias are (rats, snakes, bats, hurricanes, bees, ants, tornadoes, sharks).

Here is a sample of the scintillating dialogue:

“This very room gives me the creeps. In case you didn’t know, rats, especially the really big ones, drive me nuts. I just saw one with big glowing eyes.”
“You’re from New York city, Anthony. New Yorkers can’t help by have a big fear of rats. They’ll bite a whole into you the size of the Grand Canyon.”
“You’re right, Prudence. Us New Yorkers know about big rats.”
“I take it that big rats are your biggest fear, like your number one phobia.”
“Yes they are!” Anthony spoke with a tremor.
“Know what my biggest phobia is?”
“Tell me.”
“Bats!” Prudence detested
Anthony ceased from his brief tremor. He couldn’t believe what his ears had absorbed. “Did I hear you say that bats were your biggest phobia?”
“Yes,” Prudence rectified.
“Guess bat and rats can both be creepy”

{skip more damn musings about bats which no-one cares about}

Dana belted out a strong giggle. “You guys, we’ve all got something that we’re in fear of. For example, I’m scared to death of bees. “

After this, Megan tells us she’s afraid of ants. Which she’s already told us, but more repetition is needed, and Anthony sums up with this line

“Then it’s official, guys. “ Anthony affirmed. “I’m scared as hell of rats, especially the really big ones. Megan is scared as hell of ants. Dana is scared as hell of bees. Prudence is frightened out of her mind of bats.”

Note that this agonising section of dialogue happens AFTER Anthony has already told us he’s scared of rats (twice) and after Dana has explained her fear of bees. But in case you missed it the first 3 times they said it, Anthony’s there nicely summing everything up for us. This dialogue – complete with random word uses like that bemusing use of “rectified” and belting out strong giggles and ears absorbing things rather than hearing them – is typical of the entire book. Everyone talks like this. Everyone. Then they just repeat everything they’ve said all over again.

This is just 4 of the plotters – for some unknown reason 2 of the other plotters, across town in a pet shop, decide to talk about their phobias as well. At great great great length. Then we move to the last 2 plotters – separate from all 6 of the others – and they’re talking about their phobias as well. At incredible length, yet again.

Flashback time! Back to when the Evil Argents, led by
Gerard and Chris were hunting down werewolves – including a young Derek Hale. The
wolfies hid – and we switch to Cora telling the story, how they hid for 2 days,
the standard time for a werewolf to rest and heal. Which is what Cora tells
Stiles and where she assumes Derek is in the present and she really doesn’t know
why Stiles cares; to which Stiles recounts everything that has happened this
season. And he’d rather like Derek to be involved in fixing some of it.

Cora doesn’t know – especially since Derek has changed,
to which Possibly Evil Uncle Peter Hale tells us Derek used to be like Scott (I
take this to mean less dark sexy brooding and more pouty teen angst. It’s the
progression of your tortured moody hero). But he changed – and when he did his
eye colour changed from blue.

Meanwhile, Allison has brought Scott to see Granddady
Argent. Why, so Scott gets to kill Gerard?
Alas no, he wants Scott to use his werewolf pain relief on him to make
him talk. Ok get him to talk THEN break his neck. Unlike usually though, this
pain relief causes black veins under Scott’s skin and his eyes to flare yellow

Time for more flashbacks of annoying teenaged Derek
annoying a teenaged girl, Paige, trying to impress her, then looking after her
with tortured soulful angst eyes.

Back to Gerard, the werewolf healy thing is finished and
another has doctor died – right after Deaton was rescued; as Gerard points out,
almost as if the Darach expected Deaton to survive. Gerard suggests that Deaton
is the Darach which no-one believes and then moans that though Scott cured his
cancer he keeps oozing black mush which is really unpleasant. No-one is that
sympathetic of his plight. Gerard says he can’t tell them how to beat him
(Deucalion? The Darach? Either? Both?) And Allison turns to leave, having no
time for the old man’s shenanigans. He throws out a crumb to stop her leaving –
Deucalion is not always blind.

Stiles really awesomely pokes Possibly-Evil Pete for
ducking questions and we continue with the completely random Derek first love
story. Can someone please explain why, with all the big bad stuff Stiles has
blatantly lampshaded, we’re tripping happily down memory lane? Admittedly,
Stiles having embarrassing teenaged stories to poke Derek with could be amusing
but it’s still not all that relevant. Anyway, Derek and Paige got all
lovey-dovey and young!Pete got all creepy watching them. But their tryst was
interrupted by a whole load of werewolves having a meeting

Gerard picks up the story – the same story – the packs
meeting were all lead by the individual Alphas – Ennis’s pack (which was
fighting the Argents after a beta killed a hunter), Deucalion’s, Kali’s – all their
packs together discussed what to do with the Argents. They’d come to consult a
local Alpha who was extremely well regarded – because she could turn into a
wolf. An actual wolf, not the fuzzy man thing the others can manage. Talia
Hale, Derek’s mother.

Nicholas lived a very ordinary life in Cambridge – until the
fateful day his parents died.

After which Sam, his parents’ oldest friend, swoops in to
try and get him out of Cambridge, to go stay with a godmother he’s never heard
of in a large house in the countryside. What should be a simple trip is made
harrowing by attacks and the revelation that his parents did not die by
accident – they were killed by demons.

Which is what Sam, as a Sentinel, needs to battle and oppose. First and
foremost that means getting Nicholas – who is special – to safety. But then he
needs to help the besieged sentinels, including those who have been attacked
and the increasing number who are dying

Unfortunately if I had to sum up this book in 2 words
they would be “vague” and “slow”.

In this world we have evil dark demons of badness who are
doing dark and nefarious things. They’re either coming to Earth or want to come
to Earth or are on Earth and we wish they weren’t and they’re going to do bad
stuff while here

What that bad stuff is, I don’t know. What these demons
are, I don’t know. What these demons can do, I don’t know. They’re demons, they’re
served by Harvesters (I don’t know what they are) and Familiars (I don’t know
what they are). And they’re evil and want to do evil things.

Then there are the good guys called the sentinels. They
fight the bad things, for reasons unknown but positively related to the bad guys
being bad. I don’t know what the sentinels are, how they started, what their
symbols are, what their resources are, what they do or how they do it. But they’re
the good guys and they fight the bad guys. They also serve something called the
Trinity – I have no idea what that is beyond the fact it probably isn’t the
Christian Trinity. Esus is also involved as well – Gaulish Celtic god (not that
the book tells me that, I just know the name. We just have Esus. He wields a
mask. He’s important somehow).

Then we have Nicholas, the 15 year old. His parents were
sentinels (tragic parent death) and he is special. How he is special I don’t
know, but he was born special. I don’t know how. He may be able to do things. I
don’t know what. But his specialness is such that the bad guys want to kill him
and the good guys would rather that didn’t happen.

In the future Kiera is having her CMR chip poked at and
she asks what happens to their memories which are constantly recorded – she
assumes they get erased every 36 hours. And the tech dodges the question. She
presses and he lies – which her CMR tells her. He admits that he’s heard that
nothing is erased, that the archive goes back years. Every waking moment Kiera
has had the chip has been recorded. Kiera is horrified that her entire life is
being recorded.

Kiera actually questioning! Will wonders never cease!

In the present at the police station there has been a
major cyber attack attributed to Liber8; everyone password to their email
accounts has been changed to Liber8. As to the fallout of that? One detective
attacks another detective because he was having an affair with his wife. As
Carlos says, hope everyone likes being in the glass house.

They consult with Dillon and he asks Betty to take
advantage of the absent security to check the email accounts of anyone
suspected of being close to Liber8 – both Betty and Carlos are very
uncomfortable with that.

At Liber8 headquarters, Sonya isn’t happy – Lucas’s hack
was supposed to get them private info not cause chaos. He claims it’s part of
his plan, which doesn’t help because she wants to know when he was going to let
her in on that plan. Lucas responds by acting more creepily and more
cryptically. He leaves and goes to a van, opens it and talks to… Kagame! Who is
also dead! Another Lucas hallucination? He tells Lucas to bring the city to its
knees.

Talking to Alec, Kiera thinks it’s a great idea to hack
Gardiner’s email while the attack is happening and see where he is. Alec passes
on breaking into a CSIS agent’s email (this is the same Alec who was perfectly
happy hacking into spy satellites and hacking to produce Kiera’s heavily
redacted false credentials…). And phase 2 of Lucas’s plan hits – all the
traffic lights are on green, causing a car accidents.

Back at the Police station the mayoral candidate Jim
Martin (Carlos’s
old friend, in Liber8’s pocket) is on the news promising miracles and
Dillon gives a big speech about the city falling apart and how they should use
the opportunity given to go after anyone who has considered a pro-liber8 or
anti-police agenda. He’s doubling down on his police state. A series of police
raids grand many people off the street at gun point. Police state is a go.

Dillon presses Betty about finding the hacker and they
talk about her extreme discomfort with using illegal acts to pursue him and the
drag net arrests – arresting people for looking at the wrong website or for
writing an email that says Liber8 may have a point. Dillon completely dismisses
her concerns.

As for the Jim Martin, Travis intercepts him to request
that he arrange a meeting between him and Kiera over
the disappearance of Garza. Otherwise he can kill Jim slowly and painfully.
His choice.

Tom wakes up from a dream - about alien invasion and
people dying! But it was all a dream and he wakes up next to his loving wife in
his nice normal home just 10 days before Christmas (and he still has to shop.
Shopping 10 days before Christmas? I’d take the alien invasion). And he’s all
soppy and happy – but his wife wants to know why he was talking about Anne in
his sleep (whoa, take Alien invasion AND shopping 10 days before Christmas
ahead of saying another woman’s name in your sleep while next to your wife).

Ok I’ve been patient. Explain these shenanigans please.

Everything’s all normal, the 3 boys bicker, Ben is wearing glasses and Tom is
freakily groomed. Well groomed looks AWFUL on him. Hal has a girlfriend, Rita –
and Weaver is a homeless doom-sayer with a sign proclaiming the end is near. I knew
he was lying about being in the army! The policewoman who collected him could
have been Karen – was that Karen?

Pope is a philosophy professor (my brain hurts at the
very idea). Lourdes his student who he’s having an affair with, Anthony is the
Dean of his college. And his secretary tells him an Anne Glass keeps calling
him – but he’s never heard of her.

No, really, I’ve been patient – these shenanigans need
explaining.

Marina another professor, Maggie is a student along with Lourdes
and she’s excited because Tom taught her history where women did more than just
domestic duties; and the mysterious Anne has left him an expensive bottle of
whiskey. Marina’s battling over the
location of something but Tom sees homeless man Weaver again and decides to
check it out but is interrupted by Dai (remember him?) Anne’s husband accusing him
of having an affair.

In discussions with various people, the same 4 cities
keep coming up. New York, Jacksonville, Chicago, Boston.

When Dai leaves, Pope arrives to try and get the city as
well – while Tom watches Weaver be dragged away by Karen-cop again. Ominous
music plays ominously

Shenanigans have still not been explained (though by the
same cities coming up, the Espheni are using subliminal questioning to learn
something from Tom about one of those cities? My guess).

The ominous music continues when he decides to ask his
with who Anne is and about the random cities; she’s bemused especially with him
zoning out. For a flicker, in the mirror, he a sees a reflection of the
dishevelled Tom we’ve seen so often.

At work he draws up a whole whiteboard which tells him nothing and he gets
another love note from Anne. He goes to Pope and tells him he’s being
gaslighted. Pope, being a philosophy professor, responds with gibberish. Ben drops
in to try and parse some sense and bring up the cities again, but Tom just acts
more erratic – especially since he gets a text message inviting him for coffee
from Anne.

She’s there in the coffee shop and greets him as someone
who knows him and very warmly – and she wants to know where they’re going,
those 4 cities again. She asks which one he wants to go to – it’s her Christmas
present to him; and he zones out looking at homeless Weaver again. He comes
back to himself and tells Anne she’s a complete stranger and he doesn’t
understand why she’s haunting him. Anne has a huff, tells him to take his wife
away instead – but tell her the city first so she knows not to go as well. More
and more people repeat the cities and Tom begins to flash out of it

Nikki is a private investigator blessed – or cursed – with
considerable psychic abilities that definitely give her a leg up in her job.
Certainly it should be enough to keep track of a spoiled and indulged
off-the-rails teenaged girls at the behest of her unpleasant, but far-to-doting
father

But that teenaged girl is in far deeper than Nikki had
ever imagined, thrall to a vampire, becoming a vampire herself, she tries to
lure Nikki in to her master, Jasper’s clutches. Her powers will be an
incredible asset to him

Especially since he is being hunted by Michael, ancient
vampire, troubleshooter – and on a mission to protect Nikki from Jasper. And
settle his old grudge with Jasper while he’s at it, if he can, after having
hunted the other vampire for decades.

His priorities become skewed when he meets Nikki and
starts to consider a relationship he thought impossible.

There was a lot about this book that it got right. We had
a very consistent internal voice, we had a developed and fairly clearly defined
world (though I find the masquerade of the world a little odd). The pacing is
really good – it runs at a nice steady rate. We have a hunt that is well maintained
– the characters make a constant effort to catch the big bad that never has
dead moments nor does it get massively distracted – not even by the romance. In fact the romance also has a good balance between pained introspection and
actually getting on with the story

It does start with a rather grandiose turn of phrase and a lot of convoluted
rambling, but the book soon gets that out of its system and knives can just be
knives rather than blades glowing with argent flame. Later there’s some shaky
characterisation with both the big bad's persona (who is pretty much a comic book
villain) as well as convoluted ways to make Nikki share her tortured past; Michael
keeps telling her Jasper is attacking her through her bad memories but we've never
actually seen him do that

The main problem I have with this book is that there’s
nothing shiny about it. It follows a lot of the traits and tropes I’ve seen
elsewhere. Nikki has dead parents and a tragic past with an ex that has left
her with issues and inability to trust. Michael has a tragic past and issues
and a duty that will take him away from Nikki. Neither of them think they can
fall in love but lo, love happens despite only knowing each other for a week. We
have a big bad who is very big and very bad who Michael has a personal grudge
against and he must balance his need for revenge against his love for Nikki. Nikki
is a private investigator with psychic magic powers. Michael is a vampire. I've seen it before so many times

It’s not that it’s bad – the story isn’t bad by any
stretch of the imagination. It’s just that it reads like a basic urban fantasy/paranormal
romance. There’s nothing unique here. It’s a template for so many urban
fantasies and it just hasn’t coloured outside the lines at all. Many urban
fantasies start with this – but then they embellish on top of it, they take the
basic pattern and then add their own tweak, their own style, their own unique
selling point to say why you should read them rather the gazillion and one
other books on the market that are so similar to it.

I can only assume this is because the book is a
re-release, while this is an ARC, the books were published before in
2000. Back then, it’s likely these books would be more unique and original –
now they’re kind of lost in a sea of very similar stories.

There are also some tropes in this book I don’t care for
at all, particularly related to the romance and the way Michael treats Nikki.
Firstly, the romance is horrendously fast tracked; normally I wouldn't spend
too many words on that because fast-forwarded “I just saw you and now I love
you forever can’t live without you!” is a staple in the genre. But this goes
above and beyond – Nikki and Michael are thinking about how luscious the other
is on their very first meeting while neck deep in zombies. So fast tracked is
it that Michael is already angsting about how their relationship is doomed to
fail before they even have anything resembling a relationship (18% into the
book!)

While possessed Lafayette tries to drown Sookie, her
distress rings Bill’s Sookie alarm – he lets Warlow go so he can zoom to the rescue,
slamming Lafayette against a tree before using faerie light as an exorcism.
Post exorcism, Sookie gets to curse her father out.

Unfortunately, having saved Sookie, Billith then summons
Warlow back; Sookie grabs his hands and they do a sunlight faerie teleportation
thing (that’s new) to parallel faerie soft-focus world. Billith is not
impressed and tries to find Jessica to ask her about the pull when he summoned
her, but she’s missing. Billith realises his visions of vampires dying are
happening and starts angsting

Solution! Induce a coma so he can talk to Lillith. Yes this is the level of
logic Bill is working under now. I agree with Takehashi, Bill you are out of
your ever loving mind. Bill glamours Takehashi into draining nearly all of his
blood, leaving him for a day, then putting it back

In the land of saccharine twee, Warlow asks Sookie to
engage in some bondage. It seems with
the sun sinking Warlow’s vampire nature comes out to play and he can’t always
control himself, especially when he’s hungry. So they tie him to a stone which
Warlow binds to the Earth with his light (I’m less worried about him moving the
stone and more concerned about the fact you’re using VINES to try and pin a
vampire, even with the knots sealed). Also Sookie sucks are tying knots and did
Warlow deliberately choose a stress position?

They make small talk about Warlow being born in 3500 BC
and how Sookie is special enough to be worth waiting for. Sookie asks why she
thinks the contract was ok and he points out it was written in the 1700s,
arranged marriages were hardly taboo at the time. It seems if Warlow turns
Sookie it also helps him immensely with his hunger and pain – because they
could both live just off each other’s blood. Just them together forever – which
is totally not creepy coming from someone he just met.

At the vampire camp, Eric and Pam square off and Pam is
not amused that Eric has made another vampire. They levitate into the air
looking awesome – before blurring into motion, opening the gun ports at the
side of the cell and killing the guards prepared to shoot them. The
psychiatrist loves the show (I kind of like him in a deeply creeped out
fashion) everyone else watches the show except Steve Newlin who is scared. Pam
and Eric impale the guard with one of the stakes they’ve been given – driving the
stake right through the bullet proof, one way glass separating them from the
spectators. Eric looks through the hole and sees Steve who duly starts
whimpering.

Truman and Eric engage in mutual taunting and Truman
rolls out Nora information he got from that “vamp queen” Newlin. They inject
her with a new plague they’ve created – hepatitis V, contagious, lethal and
anti-vampire.

And Jason is volunteering to join the LAVTF – the anti-vampire
police and he actually interviews really well because his long experience
around vampires has given him a whole lot of experience and knowledge. He plays
the part well and the enthused recruiter goes to get the boss, while Jason
disgustedly mutters about them being “racist.”

He joins easily and begins regaling his fellow LAVTF
members with tales of his exploits when he’s introduced to Sarah Newlin he
pretends to be a stranger to her and she the same - after all, she’s hardly going
to want to reveal she slept with Jason while with Truman. Which is exactly what
he threatens her with which would work if he didn’t call her a “whore for
Christ” which is wrong on many levels.

One year ago, Thomas and Chloé return home to find Adèle
passed out in the bathroom with her wrists cut.

In the present, Toni and Serge walk through the woods
away from their house after Toni
shot at the police; though Toni is struggling and also worries about their
mother who he thinks they left behind (except, of course, she hasn’t returned from
the dead and it was just Serge’s way of hiding Léna). In the woods they find a
bonfire, with animal bodies in the ashes. In case there wasn’t enough creepy

They stagger through the woods for hours, walking in
circles until Toni can’t go on. Serge looks for a way out while Toni rests –
and he sees his mother, before she disappears in the woods. She may have
Returned

They swim across the lake rather than going round – and
half away across Toni struggles, but something drags Serge underwater. Toni
makes it out of the lake, but Serge is still missing

Léna, meanwhile has found a shower – and is cowering in
it. When she hears footsteps she hurriedly pulls on some clothes, locks the
door and gasps in panic when someone pulls the handle – until she hears it’s
Jérôme and she hugs him in relief.

Creepy Victor is till creepy and he wakes a sleeping
Pierre at Helping hands and tells him to follow; to look at the pretty lake.
While I was getting confused (Victor isn’t at Helping Hands), it turns out to
be just Pierre’s dream, he wakes up to Claire worrying and fretting and seeking
comfort. So she shows her his food bunker (not a euphemism – this guy stocks
like the end of the world is happening tomorrow or there’s an epic sale in the
local supermarket. Or like my grandmother). He rather ominously promises her
they won’t have to leave (I think being evacuated because the dam is breaking
and there’s no power makes leaving a pretty good idea) and shows her his big
stash o’ guns. This was supposed to reassure Claire? She doesn’t look
reassured, nor about him talking about protecting Camille. He also has a creepy
looking medical room (looks like a badly decorated dentist’s office) and starts
talking about the book of revelations.

Let it be said that Pierre is really really really bad at
being reassuring.

At Laure’s house Julie wakes up and beckons Laure over as she walks past – they
kiss, passionately until Laure starts to lift Julie’s nightshirt. Julie is
self-conscious because of her scars, but Laure reassures her, lifts the shirt
and kisses the scars – which is when Creepy Victor appears being creepy. Laure
yells at him to get lost and stop creepily watching them make out like the
creepy thing he is and he leaves. Laure then apologises to Julie but worries if
Victor is safe; Julie sensibly points out Victor is actually a child. Julie
tells Laure her worry that she is one of the returned but Laure points out all
of the Returned have been dead and buried for years – not Julie who was
clinically dead for a few seconds 7 years ago and stayed around since then. But
being one of the Returned doesn’t bother Julie – because it would give her a
reason why the last 7 years she hasn’t been able to live. Victor goes to stare
creepily out of the window.

Adèle has another awkward discussion with Chloé – about
Simon being an angel or just the returned dead and, therefore, able to stay.
Adèle reassures her it’s impossible – hah! She’s in for a surprise.

Simon wakes up (yes he was actually asleep) with Lucy;
he’s all moody while Lucy tries to convince him to stay away from Adèle, he
can’t have anything to do with them – he’s dead. She wants him to come with her
– apparently she knows where the dead should go, but he wants to understand
something first

Him and me both.

At Helping Hands, Camille and Mrs. Costa talk dead people
stuff – like her husband killing himself when she returned; Mrs. Costa gets
defensive and doesn’t want to answer Camille’s many questions. Mrs. Costa tells
her how she died – but it’s different from what she told Claire and different
again from what she told Jérôme. Camille calls her out for lying and Mrs. Costa
turns it back on her – the lies Pierre encouraged Camille to tell to give the
parents of the other crash victims “hope”. Camille is sure it helped them – Mrs.
Costa doesn’t think so and tells Camille to look in the storehouse. Camille
goes with Claire – and finds the bodies. And the others realise that Camille is
at least partly responsible, while Pierre continues to maintain his cult.